Go Greener, Australia

I’m going with a bit of a Christmas-y theme today, for a bit of fun:

Choice magazine has a great article on 10 tips for a sustainable Christmas. It’s got some useful links to resources that’d make it easier for you to make the greener choices this month.

Wondering what to do with those damn plastic bags you were unable to avoid? I take my reusable bag everywhere and *still* end up with half a dozen every month! But the Creature Comforts website has a great idea - turn them into pom-poms to decorate your Christmas gifts with! Looks cute and easy to do. DIY Eco-happy pom-pom gift topper.

And for another gift-wrapping idea that you can make eco-friendly by your choice of materials, try Fun with Fonts by Lupin at Bugs and Fishes. If you’re using plain recycled paper to wrap presents this year, this idea will help you decorate and personalise them using smaller amounts of colourful paper.

First, a bit of news: there’s an extra Green Drinks on in Perth next week, Tuesday 9th December! Check out the details at O2WA.

Some of the links I’ve liked this week:

Greenpeace Oz has released an updated version of their True Food Guide, which lets you know which foods in shops contain genetically-modified ingredients. It’s free to download as a pdf file, or you can order a copy to be sent out to you.

Wilma, you might like this one: Ask Nature, a website showing examples of how we can design better buildings and objects by learning from nature, which has solved many issues already. Biomimicry is a fascinating topic, and this site has beautiful photography as well.

The Wilderness Society shows you how to become a Super Activist, by making sure your superannuation is invested ethically.

My favourite links this week:

CO2 Now: this is pretty cool - you can keep an eye on the current CO2 levels in the atmosphere. The measurements are taken from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. The site also has widgets that you can put on your website.

Just in time for summer! Ceiling Fan tips from The Simple Dollar. From the post: “…if you ran your ceiling fan all day and it managed to decrease your home air conditioner use by just thirty minutes in a twenty four hour period, you’ll end up saving significant money over the long run with a ceiling fan.”

News this week: China sets price for cooperation on climate change. They want developed nations to spend 1% of their GDP on helping other nations fight climate change.

You can see more links at my delicious.com bookmark page - I’ve got nearly a thousand links to interesting environmental information and websites.

I’m starting a new feature - each Friday I’m going to post the links to green info that I liked the most this week.

• Funny (but not quite safe for work or little ones, some coarse language and hand gestures) video from Greenpeace Australia at Your Call on Coal. Featuring the Coaly Moleys and Lumpy the Coal. I wish I’d thought of this! After watching the video, you can sign up to call PM Kevin Rudd’s office, to tell him you don’t want the ETS to include payments to polluters.
• Nothing to fear but fear itself at Cosmos Magazine. Cosmos’ editor-in-chief says “The danger is not that we can’t do anything, but that we’ll believe we can’t; that we might lose confidence and fail to sidestep the “climate change train” before it’s too late.”
• 4 good reasons to offset, and 2 reasons not to at Offset Consumer. Offsets are a tricky area, with a lot of shady dealings going on. This site rates offset suppliers and calculators, but does not sell any itself.

Did you see anything eco-friendly on the net that you’d like to share? Leave us a link in the comments!

So, just to round out the week, here’s a few links to green things going on that I thought were interesting:

ProQuo has their Top 10 Creative Responses to Junk Mail. I still think it’s better to cut it off at the source, but there’s always one advertiser who thinks their ads aren’t junk, and you have to get rid of it somehow

New York is having Summer Streets Saturdays, where a section of the city is closed to cars for a few hours and people are invited to come out and play! They say it’s “part bike tour, part block party, a great time for exercise, people watching, and just enjoying summer mornings.” Can we get something like this happening regularly in our capital cities too?

Clare at Ockham’s Razor pointed out the Greenpeace Energy Revolution website. It’s a petition you can sign, asking PM Rudd to commit to building renewable energy sources and phasing out dirty coal by 2030. Check out the video under the Blueprint for Change menu, it’s good stuff.

Gavin has a fun video up, where the amazing Eco-Boy shows us how to save electricity and water around the home. Thanks, Eco-boy, you’re my hero!

Catchment Detox is the project for National Science Week this year. It’s an online game where you have to manage a catchment while balancing the needs of the environment, the economy and the people. There are great prizes for individuals and for school teams, including books and dvds from the ABC Shops, and a trip to the Kimberley.